Phi Beta Delta General Meeting

Wednesday, September 5, 2007

Minutes

  • Call to order
  • Old Business

-RSO Paperwork: Deadline to complete is October 15th; all we need is Mel’s signature

-ISO Fair Feedback (Kim): good for name recognition, but students need to complete at least 12 credits in order to be eligible – therefore everyone there isn’t eligible yet.

-Teach for America (Courtney): The first deadline is September 21st, although applications will be accepted until Feb. 1st. It is a paid position teaching underprivileged students in the US for 2 years. At the end, participants may be eligible for a teaching certificate. Some info will be included in the next newsletter.

-Restaurant Club (Nahid): She was unable to attend the meeting but e-mailed Courtney some updates. She said that she contacted Carlos Fuentes about collaborating on IVACs monthly outings. Courtney said that Nahid was also looking into calling restaurants about reservations, minimum order amounts to reserve rooms, etc.

  • New Business

-Meeting Schedule:

  • Wednesdays 10/3, 11/7, 12/5 (tentative): Patty has a conflict with the next two Wednesday meetings. A separate Induction meeting should keep this from being a problem for at least October. We will re-evaluate meeting dates/times again because many usual members weren’t in attendance at the last one.

-Induction Ceremony

  • Wednesday, November 14th
  • Rooms 302, 303 and 305 Int’lCenter from 3-9pm
  • Speaker: Dean Satish Udpa, College of Engineering
  • Slide show, Food orders, Programs, Medals, etc.
  • Induction meeting needed week of Sept. 17 – please check your schedule so this can be planned
  • Check-in will be at 5:45 with the ceremony starting at 6:30
  • Letters should be sent Oct. 5th, due Oct. 15th (gives us a couple days leeway). Should order by Oct. 19th.
  • Patty will be in touch with the Registrar’s Office and Study Abroad to get potential members’ names
  • Kim is organizing food again and will have more updates at the Induction meeting
  • Chuck is checking on the number of medals we already have, and will be ordering the new ones from the National Office. We should leave at least two weeks for them to come in.
  • Norseha took care of the slideshow and music last year, but was not in attendance to sign up for it again. Hopefully this will be settled at the Induction meeting.
  • Coffee hour(s): we will co-sponsor with Internationalizing Student life with Carlos Fuentes on October 5th. Angelika is going to call to get October 12th as well (during the Homecoming parade). These will be announced via e-mail to the inductees, letting them know to expect a letter of invitation, and inviting them to learn more at the coffee hours.
  • Norseha should start a binder with old induction information so that we have a hard copy all in one place for future reference.

-New GPA Requirements

  • Currently GPA 3.3 for undergraduates and 3.7 for grad students
  • Spring, Summer and Fall 2008 3.55 Honors
  • Spring, Summer and Fall 2009 3.60 Honors
  • Spring, Summer and Fall 2010 3.65 Honors
  • We decided to wait for a couple of years. The University is increasing the GPA for graduating with Honors, but there is no guidance on exact GPA requirements from the national office. Surveying comparable schools was suggested to get an idea of what minimum GPA other schools have.

-Leadership Nominations

-Treasurer: position was vacated by Min Ho due to a family emergency. The position will be advertised in the newsletter and hopefully finalized at the next meeting.

-Director of Events: Anita is interested, although eligibility may be an issue since she is a new transfer student. Patty will check into the matter.

-Collaboration

  • International Health Project: has great potential in terms of collaboration. A representative was unable to come, and Courtney will follow up to find out more. This includes potential costs to us, and what events they usually sponsor
  • IVAC: Carlos Fuentes had many updates on events they are sponsoring and is very interested in collaborating. Many of these will be listed in the newsletter (since I’m sure I missed some). Thursday, Sept 13th they are sponsoring an international organization fair in the Spartan rooms 11am-2pm, free pizza, so far 11 groups signed up. Bike ride: date tbd, bike the river trail and get ice cream from the dairy store. Potluck dinners: at Carlos’ house, Sept 27, Nov 1 (with costumes!), Thanksgiving potluck in Spartan Villiage. Cuisine nights: carpool to restaurants, contact owner to give a short talk on the cultural importance of the food, next one Oct 18th. Retreat: next one Sept 21-23. African gala: Nov. 10th, sponsored with the African Student Union. International dance: Nov. 16th or 17th, date not finalized. There will also be a winter break service trip to Acapulco, Mexico, with an estimated student cost of about $1,000. We will have some info in the newsletter and bulletin board.
  • OCAT: through Lee June, changed mission since Proposal 2. Office of Cultural and Academic Transitions. Nahid is also involved.

-Fundraisers

  • Care to Share Community Date with Younkers: flyer given out at meeting, tabled until next general meeting. The even tis Saturday, Nov. 10th. We would sell coupon books for discounts at Younkers for $5 good for that day only, and keep all money raised. There is no cost to us. Each booklet contains a $10 coupon (customers already save more than spent), eight 20% off coupons, and two bonus item offers.

-Upcoming Dates and Events:

  • 21st Century Chautauqua ( flyer given out at meeting; see it or website for more info – will discuss at next meeting. There also is a new course they are offering: RCAH 310 Topics in Childhood and Society: Personal, Social, and Institutional Responsibilities.
  • Phi Beta Delta Conference: April 16-19“Different Heritages, Common Humanity. Call for papers in the newsletter. We may put a blurb about us in the national newsletter. The national newsletter is very large – Patty suggested putting a link to it on our site/newsletter instead.
  • Cultural Dances (Nahid): would be held after the induction in November. This would be in collaboration with OCAT, and Nahid talked to her team coordinator, Megan Wigley, about it. Once a team meeting is set she’ll let us know.

-Other

-Alumni: How can we get alumni involved and keep them posted?

-Members abroad: How can we involve members who are abroad? What can they do, how can they report back? – please email ideas to

-Publicity: 15-20 minutes air-time on Exposure at 89 FM The Impact to talk about our RSO and upcoming events; Exposure is a weekly 1-hour forum devoted to providing a publicity venue for student and community groups; Tuesday evenings from 7-8 p.m.; contact Lisa Gibes at We should do this after letters go out – October 9th. Kim will e-mail Lisa about this.

-Faculty list: Much work has been spent on getting our list of inducted faculty members updated. We need to get an electronic copy of this to include faculty in our e-mail communications. We can ask them to nominate other faculty members and need to get faculty involved in the workings of the club. In the future, we may be able to get recurring dues from them. There was also confusion about whether John Hudson is a member, and Chuck is looking into it.

-Upcoming talk: October 11th former ambassador Robert Finn is speaking from 3-5pm in the InternationalCenter, 3rd floor. He is teaching at Princeton and is a professor in international relations. He is also the first Ambassador to Afghanistan. Chuck has the complete details – I missed the name of the group sponsoring the talk.

-Study Abroad fair: Angelika contacted them about volunteering at the Study Abroad fair on Thurs, Sept 20th from noon-6pm. Apparently there has been a problem with some members not showing up and staying the whole time, leaving them short staffed. We can bring the tri-fold to set up near the returnee table. People who volunteered at the meeting: Kim (after 3pm), Chuck (one hour), Hanna Joo (12-2:30), Nabina Song (12-2:30), Angelika (set-up 11-noon), Anita (Ching-Chi Anita Hsu, an hour). E-mail addresses are at the end of the minutes.

12-1: Hanna and Nabina

1-2: Hanna and Nabina

2-3: Chuck

3-4: Kim

4-5

5-6

  • Next Meeting

Wednesday October 3, 2007

  • Adjournment